Once again, India is making maritime history, this time on a river! Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday laid the foundation stones for four river lighthouses along the Brahmaputra. This also marked the very first time any lighthouse infrastructure would be built on an inland waterway anywhere in the country.
The ceremony was held at Lachit Ghat, Guwahati, jointly organised by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) and the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).
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The four sites are Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district, Pandu in Kamrup Metro district, and Silghat in Nagaon district along the south bank, and Biswanath Ghat in Biswanath district on the north bank, according to the MoPSW.
These are all strategically located along the Brahmaputra's National Waterway-2 (NW-2), which stretches 891 kilometres from Dhubri to Sadiya, the longest navigable stretch of any Indian waterway.
The combined project outlay is approximately ₹84 crore, according to the ministry. Each lighthouse will stand 20 metres tall, with a geographical range of 14 nautical miles and a luminous range of 8–10 nautical miles, and will run entirely on solar energy.
But these structures are not just functional beacons — every site will also feature a museum, amphitheatre, cafeteria, children's play area and landscaped public spaces, doubling as tourism landmarks for a region that is rapidly discovering its waterway potential.
The trigger for the project is hard data: IWAI recorded a 53 per cent surge in cargo traffic on NW-2 in FY 2024–25 alone. The Brahmaputra corridor already serves Assam's tea, coal and fertiliser industries and carries passenger traffic, but the absence of night navigation infrastructure has been a critical bottleneck. These lighthouses aim to enable 24×7 safe navigation and also house weather observation sensors.
The economics of it also make a compelling case. Moving a tonne of cargo by inland waterway costs roughly one-third of road transport and half of rail. After completion, the waterway will provide a decisive advantage for Northeast India, where road infrastructure is under constant stress from traffic and terrain.
“These lighthouses on the Brahmaputra are a statement of intent... that India’s rivers are open for business, round the clock,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
Each lighthouse is scheduled for completion within 24 months of contract award. The project was enabled by a Memorandum of Understanding signed between IWAI and DGLL on April 8, 2025, with sites formally transferred under Right of Use agreements in June 2025.